August 31, 1960: Trading Frenzy in Technology Stocks and Castro Says US Employing Gangsters Against Cuba

Trading in technology stocks has overwhelmed the New York stock exchange, newspapers reported on this day in 1960. The furor was set off when the American Telephone and Telegraph Company announced it would permit the transmission of handwritten messages over its lines for the price of a phone call. Shares of TelAutograph Corp., which manufactures a device to transmit handwritten messages on telephone lines rose sharply on the news, but only on the rare occasion when the flood of buy orders could be satisfied. There was also sudden interest in Comptometer Corp., a maker of calculating equipment, and other companies. It was anticipated the devices would be find a use in companies with branch offices or to communicate between offices and manufacturing plants. Comptometer has had a device in use to transmit written messages since 1959, but these transmissions had to travel over privately leased wires. The AT&T Dataphone has been in use for more than two years to transmit messages from one machine to another, also over the more expensive leased lines. ... In Cold War news for this day in 1960, Fidel Castro accused the United States of planning to shoot down a plane carrying Cuban Foreign Minister Raul Roa, who was returning from a meeting of the Organization of American States in Costa Rica. "All the gangsters, murders and mercenaries around the Caribbean have work guaranteed to them by the United States intelligence service and the United States State Department," Castro said in a speech. Castro also said his government had "gratefully" accepted the Soviet Union's offer of "rocket support" against attack from the U.S.


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